Black Metal Court Case: Monday, July 31 2006

Technorati tags: Malaysia, Music, Black Metal, Police, Misconduct, Raid, Public Service Announcement

Got this heads-up via e-mail from Disarseter Records (with thanks).

Remember Goat Gate? New Year's Eve 2006? Paul's Place? Any of this ring a bell?

The court case pertaining to the Paul's Place raid on New Year's Eve will be heard at the Central Magistrate's Court 6 (opposite Dataran Merdeka) at 9:00 am on Monday 31st July 2006.

GoatGate 101 Refresher
a) A raid was conducted on Paul's Place by the Brickfields Police Station, 31 December 2005. Over 300 people were detained. Those detained were inside Paul's Place, in public places and food stalls within a 100 m radius of the venue. Several police officers we spoke to that night informed us that it was a "Black Metal" raid.

b) David and 3 other individuals were remanded for 2 days and released following a press conference and some assistance from Mr Ronnie Lui. During this time, the reason for the raids was shifted from "Black Metal" to "Unlawful gathering", "public indecency" and back to "Black Metal".

c) Finally, after several weeks, the police department decided why they had conducted the raid. David was charged on 4 counts, operating a pub without a license, selling liquor without a license, not having customs/import permits for the liquor (I think) and displaying the "Paul's Place" banner without getting a DBKL permit. In addition to that, the others were charged under the printing presses act for distributing printed 'zines and t-shirts without the approriate permits.

What You Can Do
Do turn up in large numbers and occupy pews in the public gallery - and guys from the press, do come yourselves or send your reporters to cover this important landmark in legal history - and hopefully whatever the outcome will be given space in the media, so that the truth shall be laid bare, and whoever is righteous will be vindicated (we hope).

(Text for the majority of this post courtesy of Disarseter Records)